I didn’t anticipate Celia calling him up. I guess I should have, but I was too busy worrying about everything else.
He sighs. ‘Are you okay at least? Were you hurt at all in the accident? And are you absolutely sure it was really Dina?’
‘I’m fine.’ I sound distant, my voice monotone and almost offhand. ‘The car’s not in such good shape. And no, I’m not a hundred per cent that it was Dina, but if it wasn’t her, then it was her double.’
‘And the police didn’t come up with anything after you left?’
‘No. Nothing.’
‘Have I done something wrong, Zoe?’ He frowns. ‘Are you pissed off at me? That’s a stupid question – of course you are. It’s obvious.’
I don’t know how to reply. My guts are twisting at the thought of asking him about Madeline. What if they were having a perfectly innocent meeting and I now accuse him of something awful? Or, even worse, what if itwasn’tperfectly innocent? I’m not prepared for this conversation. My skin feels hot and my mouth is dry as sandpaper.
‘So?’ Toby says, pouring us both a large glass of wine. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Or are you going to keep avoiding and ignoring me forever?’
I’m just about to dismiss his concerns, when I stop myself. There’s no point in lying about my worries. I’ve never been very good at hiding my feelings, and these past few days have been no exception. I take my glass of wine and knock back a couple of large gulps.
‘I saw you. Last week.’
‘Saw me?’ Toby looks confused, but there’s a faint flush of red on his neck.
‘Last Friday I called you at work to see if you were free to meet for lunch, but you said you’d already had your lunch with Nick.’ I’m staring hard at him to see his reaction, but he’s waiting for me to continue without giving much away. He takes a sip of wine. I notice the potatoes are still boiling and I realise the vegetables are already green mush. ‘So I went and sat on my mum’s bench at Park Walk. At this time of year you get a clear view of our house from there.’
‘And?’
‘You were there. With Madeline. I saw you leave together.’
His face turns red to match his neck and, for a moment, he looks like he’s going to deny it. Instead he shakes his head and looks cross. ‘So?’
‘What do you mean, “so”?’
‘I was talking to her about the thing.’
I throw up my hands, annoyed with his defensive tone. ‘What thing?’
‘You know, thething. The thing you were telling me last week, about her being weird with you and cancelling the girls coming over to stay.’
‘And you needed to meet at our house to talk about that? You had to lie to me about it?’ This conversation is going down a route that I didn’t want it to go down. But I can’t help the fact that my emotions are getting away from me. I’ve had a really stressful few days, and the one person I thought I could trust is feeding me some cock and bull story that makes absolutely no sense.
‘I didn’t lie.’ He frowns. ‘I just didn’t think it was important. It slipped my mind, okay?’
‘And you think I’m going to believe that?’ I put my wine glass down on the table to stop myself from breaking it, either by squeezing too hard or hurling it at my husband’s head.
‘Zoe, what is this? Why are you picking a fight over nothing?’
‘Okay, so if it’s nothing, what did she say?’
‘What do you mean?’ Toby shifts from one foot to another before draining his wine glass. It’s obvious he’s stalling for time so he can think of a suitably believable answer. How is this happening? This is Toby, the love of my life, acting like a cheating husband. It can’t be true.
‘I mean, what reason did Madeline give for being so rude and cold towards me; for not letting the girls stay? She must have told you.’
‘It’s what Nick already told me. She said that she was trying to be thoughtful. She said what with you working full-time and organising the party, the last thing you needed was a couple of kids to stay.’
‘Okay, so if that’s the case, why has she been avoiding me?’
‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask her about that.’
‘Sorry, Toby, but that doesn’t sound right to me. Why would you need to go all the way home at lunchtime to have a two-minute conversation that you already had with Nick?’
